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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Crédit Agricole Next Bank has launched a new lead management platform and CRM courtesy of a partnership with InvestGlass.
The new offering will help the bank deal with new customer growth and increasing linguistic diversity among its clients and employees.
Switzerland-based InvestGlass most recently demoed its sales and compliance automation technology at FinovateEurope in February.
Courtesy of a partnership with sales and compliance automation solution provider InvestGlass, Crédit Agricole Next Bank has launched its new lead management platform and CRM. The offering, unveiled this spring, will help the institution enhance the customer experience as well as automate internal processes for employees.
“The deployment of InvestGlass within Crédit Agricole Next Bank represents more than just a technical improvement,” Crédit Agricole Next Bank Deputy Director of Development Maxime Charton said. “It’s a cultural transformation that allows the bank to continue innovating and improving its digital journeys for the benefit of its clients.”
One of the key ways that Crédit Agricole Next Bank will leverage its new technology is to help the firm deal with the linguistic diversity that characterizes both its customers and staff. With more than four languages to contend with, the institution will benefit from InvestGlass’s flexibility and automation capabilities, which will enable Crédit Agricole Next Bank to provide personalized experiences even as its clientele grows.
Additionally, InvestGlass will help the institution fulfill its goal of digitalizing the lead management process, with appointment scheduling, prospect flow automation, and mailing tools integrated into the platform. This will make it easier for Crédit Agricole Next Bank to monitor and manage its communications more effectively across multiple channels.
“InvestGlass allows us to optimize our operational efficiency while significantly improving our clients’ experience,” Crédit Agricole Next Bank Director of Online Agency Stephane Graeffly said.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, InvestGlass made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2016 and returned to the Finovate stage most recently for FinovateEurope earlier this year. At the conference, the company demonstrated its automation solution for sales and compliance that helps banks, brokers, government agencies, and crypto companies become more productive with a non-U.S. CRM option.
InvestGlass’s partnership announcement comes a month after the company unveiled a pair of new AI solutions, Copilot and Mistral, to help businesses convert unstructured data into conversational knowledge and actionable insights. Copilot is the cloud-based option that allows companies to use their OpenAI API key. Mistral is InvestGlass’s local server/on-premise offering.
InvestGlass was founded in 2014. Alexandre Gaillard is CEO.
Robinhood has agreed to acquire digital currency marketplace Bitstamp for $200 million in cash.
The acquisition will help Robinhood fuel its global expansion and serve institutional clients, a new market for the company.
The acquisition announcement comes one month after Robinhood received a Wells Notice from the SEC for violating Sections 15(a) and 17A of the Securities Exchange Act.
Hours after I published a piece mourning the lack of application of the blockchain in fintech, I get to report on some news that proves me wrong. Digital stock brokerage app Robinhood has agreed to acquire digital currency marketplace Bitstamp for $200 million in an all-cash deal.
U.K.-based Bitstamp has offices in Luxembourg, the U.K., Slovenia, Singapore, and the U.S. and holds over 50 active licenses and registrations globally. Robinhood, which made its first foray into crypto in 2018, anticipates the deal will “significantly accelerate Robinhood Crypto’s expansion worldwide.” Specifically, Robinhood said that Bitstamp will bring Robinhood customers from across the E.U., U.K., U.S., and Asia.
The move will also help Robinhood cater to its first institutional clients. Until now, Robinhood has primarily catered to individual retail investors. Bitstamp, on the other hand, already has a strong presence in the institutional market. The company offers trade execution, deep order books, API connectivity, white label solutions, institutional lending, and staking. By integrating Bitstamp’s services and established relationships into its existing operations, Robinhood can start offering services specifically designed for serving larger, more complex clients such as large financial organizations, investment firms, and professional traders.
“The acquisition of Bitstamp is a major step in growing our crypto business. Bitstamp’s highly trusted and long standing global exchange has shown resilience through market cycles. By seamlessly coupling customer experience with safety across geographies, the Bitstamp team has established one of the strongest reputations across retail and institutional crypto investors,” said Robinhood Crypto General Manager Johann Kerbrat. “Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our footprint outside of the U.S. and welcome institutional customers to Robinhood.”
Bitstamp launched its crypto exchange in 2011 and currently has more than 5 million retail and institutional customers. The company’s core spot exchange offers over 85 tradable assets, as well as products such as staking and lending,
“As the world’s longest running cryptocurrency exchange, Bitstamp is known as one of the most-trusted and transparent crypto platforms worldwide,” said Bitstamp CEO JB Graftieaux. “Bringing Bitstamp’s platform and expertise into Robinhood’s ecosystem will give users an enhanced trading experience with a continuing commitment to compliance, security, and customer-centricity.”
Notably, Robinhood’s announcement comes a month after the California-based company received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for violating Sections 15(a) and 17A of the Securities Exchange Act. “After years of good faith attempts to work with the SEC for regulatory clarity including our well-known attempt to ‘come in and register,’ we are disappointed that the agency has decided to issue a Wells Notice related to our U.S. crypto business,” said Robinhood Markets Chief Legal, Compliance, and Corporate Affairs Officer Dan Gallagher in a statement at the time.“We firmly believe that the assets listed on our platform are not securities and we look forward to engaging with the SEC to make clear just how weak any case against Robinhood Crypto would be on both the facts and the law.”
The $200 million cash amount is subject to customary purchase price adjustments, and the deal is subject to closing conditions such as regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2025.
The U.S. House of Representatives wanted it. The Senate wanted it. Much, if not all, of the cryptocurrency industry wanted it. But on Friday, President Biden made good on his threat to veto a resolution that sought to loosen regulations regarding how financial institutions hold digital assets on their balance sheets.
“My administration will not support measures that jeopardize the well-being of consumers and investors,” President Biden said in a statement. “Appropriate guardrails that protect consumers and investors are necessary to harness the potential benefits and opportunities of crypto-asset innovation.”
The issue at hand was a repeal of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121. This bulletin was designed to compel financial institutions that are holding digital assets to keep those assets on their own balance sheets. Those backing the repeal – which included both Republicans and Democrats – claimed that the current policy was too restrictive and made it harder for financial institutions to work with cryptocurrency businesses.
The decision has enraged some and led observers to suggest that digital assets could become an issue in this year’s presidential election. Likely Republican Party nominee Donald Trump reportedly referred to the Democratic Party’s apparent distaste for crypto at a recent event – during which the former president promoted his own digital asset, a non-fungible token (NFT).
Whether Biden’s cautious approach to crypto will be a political liability in November remains to be seen. Crypto industry polls indicate that more than 20% of voters in swing states consider crypto a “major issue.” At the same time, a 2023 Pew Research Center Survey showed that most Americans continue to have major concerns about the safety and reliability of digital assets.
Blockchain and crypto solutions company Ripple has teamed up with cross-border payments solutions provider for regulated institutions, Clear Junction. The partnership will enable Clear Junction to facilitate instant and secure GBP and EUR-denominated payout coverage for Ripple’s payment clients – with additional currencies to be added later in the year.
Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s Managing Director for Europe, praised Clear Junction’s ability to support all of Ripple’s use cases. “Clear Junction already has strong relationships with a number of our existing clients, and its management team has many years of experience in cross-border payments and banking,” Craddock said.
Making its Finovate debut in 2013 as OpenCoin, Ripple has grown into a major cryptocurrency and blockchain technology firm with hundreds of customers in 55+ countries and payout capabilities in 80+ markets. Businesses rely on Ripple’s enterprise blockchain solutions to source crypto assets, facilitate instant payments, engage new audiences, grow revenues, and more.
The partnership news with Clear Junction comes in the wake of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s suggestion that an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on Ripple’s XRP coin is “inevitable.” Also, somewhat apropos of our opening story, Ripple recently donated $25 million to Fairshake, a super PAC dedicated to pro-crypto political advocacy in 2024.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is investigating the use of wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) to improve instant cross-border payments. The new initiative is called Project Rialto and is a collaboration between the BIS Innovation Hub Eurosystem and Singapore Centres, along with a number of central banks. The project takes its name from a famous bridge in Venice, Italy, that spans the banks of the Grand Canal.
“Decentralized solutions, CBDC and interlinked payment infrastructures are considered promising avenues to improve cross-border payments,” the BIS noted in a statement. “How they interact has not yet been explored and could yield answers that advance cross-border payments globally.”
Wholesale CBDCs differ from retail CBDCs in that the latter is designed for use by the general public. Wholesale CBDCs are used by banks and other licensed financial institutions for interbank payments and securities settlements. A third type of CBDC, hybrid CBDCs, combine features of both wholesale and retail CBDCs. All CBDCs offer greater efficiency compared to traditional trade and settlement methods, reducing operational expenses, enhancing transparency, and improving the overall reliability of transactions.
Deutsche Bank announced this week that it is partnering with Austrian cryptocurrency brokerage Bitpanda. Deutsche Bank will process customer deposits and withdrawals for the broker, and has agreed to give local bank account numbers to Bitpanda users in Germany.
The move is a significant one for the industry. Crypto businesses have found it challenging to find banking partners in the wake of high-profile collapses of crypto-friendly banks in 2023, like Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Capital Corporation.
That said, Deutsche Bank considers this a “very cautious” initial step. While the partnership does mean that fiat currency deposits and withdrawals from Bitpanda will flow through Deutsche Bank, the bank is not involved in the movement of any crypto assets. As Deutsche Bank Global Head of Cash Management Ole Matthiessen explained to Reuters, the bank will merely assist clients with their ingoing and outgoing transactions while supporting Bitpanda’s treasury and payments process.
Bitpanda was founded in 2014. The company has more than four million users on its platform, which offers trading and investing in cryptocurrencies, fractional shares of stock, and precious metals. This week’s announcement builds on Bitpanda’s existing relationship with Deutsche Bank for its cross-currency operations in Austria and Spain.
Be sure to check out this week’s Finovate Weekly newsletter on LinkedIn featuring a pair of crypto/blockchain-related articles!
The U.S. Small Business Administration plans to issue a new SBA loan option for small businesses.
The new pilot program will extend lines of credit of up to $5 million and will charge an annual fee and a maximum interest rate that is 3% to 6.5% higher than the prime rate.
Lenders will receive a 75% guaranty on loans larger than $150,000 and an 85% guaranty on loans smaller than $150,000.
The new pilot program, which will extend lines of credit of up to $5 million, will allow business owners to either fund specific projects or borrow against their assets. Borrowers will be charged an annual fee and will face maximum interest rates that are 3% to 6.5% higher than the prime rate, topping out at around 12% to 15%.
The new loans aim to bring more compelling offers to both lenders and borrowers than the SBA’s existing 7(a) loan program. The 7(a) loan program incentivized lenders to loan to small business owners by providing guaranties to the lenders. Last year, the program backed 57,000 loans valued at $27.5 billion.
And even though the loan amount represents a 7% increase from 2022 levels, Guzman expressed that the growth is less than ideal. The same is true for two other SBA products, the SBA Express loan, which offers up to a $500,000 line of credit, and the CapLines loan product, which didn’t appeal much to lenders because of its complicated structure.
“This product is our aim to increase access to a simpler working capital line,” Guzman told CNBC. “It basically takes the best of our various options to create a pilot program to see if we can get more borrowers an affordable working capital line, versus just a pure reliance on credit cards.”
Lenders may find the new loans especially appealing, as they limit risk. Lenders receive a 75% guaranty on loans larger than $150,000 and an 85% guaranty on loans smaller than $150,000. “In an environment of higher interest rates, we want to make sure that the SBA is an option for more businesses,” Guzman said in the CNBC interview.
The SBA’s new working capital offering may impact the competitive landscape. Fintechs and traditional banks have provided lines of credit and working capital solutions with varying degrees of accessibility and interest rates for a long time. However, the SBA’s new government-backed line of credit promises accessibility and affordability for the borrower, as well as a 75% to 85% guaranty for the lender. While fintechs often attract small businesses with their quick approval processes and attractive user interfaces, they can come with higher interest rates and less favorable terms compared to traditional banks. Banks, on the other hand, offer more stable and lower interest rates but have rigid credit requirements and slower processing times. The SBA’s new program, which will go live “in the coming months,” will help bridge these gaps.
U.K.-based insurtech Eleos has secured $4 million in seed funding.
The round was led by Fuel Ventures and Indico Capital. Early-stage investor APX also participated.
Eleos made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope in London.
Eleos, an insurtech and income protection provider based in the U.K., has raised $4 million in seed funding. Fuel Ventures and Indico Capital led the round, with Berlin-based early-stage investor APX also participating. Eleos made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope in London.
“With our new funding we will launch more lines of insurance in the life and disability verticals and strike more distribution partnerships in the U.K.” Eleos CEO and Co-Founder Kiruba Eswaran said. “Part of the funding is also earmarked to launch operations in the U.S.”
Eleos embeds white-labelled life insurance and income protection into the online journeys of financial brands. These services and products give Eleos’s partners the ability to benefit from new revenue streams as well as more thorough customer engagement and greater customer retention. Eleos’s FCA authorization also provides its partners – companies like Loqbox, CreditSpring, and Updraft – with full regulatory coverage. Eleos customers also get a variety of free benefits, including 24/7 remote GP services and mental health support.
Fuel Ventures founder Mark Pearson credited Eleos for its experience, understanding of the industry, and access to a substantial market. “With Eleos we’ve found all three and we believe their products encapsulate our thinking about the insurance space – giving people easy access on familiar platforms.”
Founded in 2023, Eleos has already served more than 20,000 customers in the U.K. The company offers personalized and dynamic quotes for its insurance product, and enables potential customers to choose an affordable monthly payment plan and buy their insurance policy in minutes. Additionally, Eleos’s income protection solution helps individuals cover their essential expenses in the event of an illness or injury that requires long-term sick leave. Currently offering embedded insurance for brands, Eleos is planning to offer insurance policies directly to individuals in the future.
“The insurtech market has plenty of room to grow and Eleos is targeting areas which are not only sizable but overlooked by other current players globally,” Indico Capital Partners Managing General Partner Stephan Morais said.
AMLYZE, a regtech specializing in combating financial crime that made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year, has forged a strategic partnership with Aura Cloud. Headquartered in Lithuania, AMLYZE offers anti-financial crime solutions for a variety of financial services providers, including fintechs, banks, and cryptocurrency firms. The company’s partnership with Sweden-based Aura Cloud will combine the latter’s expertise in financial crime prevention with the former’s digital banking solutions.
AMLYZE Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships Jekaterina Govina praised Aura Cloud for its “commitment to agility and innovation” which Govina said “aligns perfectly with our mission to provide AML/CFT solutions, built by regulatory insiders who understand customer pain points from the inside out.” Govina added, “Together, we will empower financial institutions to stay ahead of the curve in the fight against financial crime.”
AMLYZE leverages AI, synthetic data, and the power of the network to offer a paradigm-shifting approach to AML. The AMLYZE platform’s use of synthetic data and privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) enables aggressive adoption of AI and machine learning techniques and strategies that do not violate confidentiality or breach data privacy. The company’s technology can be deployed to provide real-time and retrospective transaction monitoring, customer risk assessments, AML/CFT investigations, and PEP, sanctions, and negative media screening. Moreover, AMLYZE’s model facilitates not only effective financial crime detection, but also AI model training, testing of automated solutions, and AML staff training.
“(AMLYZE’s) automated transaction monitoring and customer risk assessment solution provides additional possibilities for our core banking platform customers to have (a) state of the art solution to minimize financial crime and enhance compliance,” Aura Cloud CEO Prem Bhagwat said. “We see this partnership as an excellent addition to our current partnership ecosystem in Northern Europe and beyond.”
Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, AMLYZE made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. The company has raised $1 million (€1 million) in pre-seed funding, courtesy of an investment round led by Practica Capital, a major venture capital firm based in the Baltics, and FIRSTPICK, a Baltics-based accelerator and venture capital fund.
Trulioo and Mastercard have partnered to help clients streamline onboarding while combatting fraud.
Trulioo will leverage Mastercard’s identity solutions to gain insight into identity and risk scores.
Mastercard will tap Trulioo’s global business identity verification services to enhance its Onboard Risk Check product by adding a layer of assurance to merchant and consumer onboarding solutions.
Global identity platform Truliooannounced today it has teamed up with Mastercard to help merchants streamline digital onboarding while helping them combat fraud.
Under the agreement, Trulioo will leverage Mastercard’s identity solutions to power two of its products– Person Match and Risk Intelligence. This will offer Trulioo insights into identity and risk scores through a customizable, intuitive dashboard, extending the company’s offerings beyond API-based products and further enhancing its onboarding processes.
“Trulioo is proud to partner with Mastercard and shares their dedication to industry-leading business verification and fraud prevention,”said Trulioo CEO Steve Munford.“As organizations navigate the complexities of the digital payments industry, fraud and business identity theft are constant threats. This is a pivotal milestone in our joint endeavor that will pave the way for a more secure global digital landscape.”
Mastercard will also see benefits from the strategic partnership. Trulioo’s global business identity verification services will enhance Mastercard’s Onboard Risk Check product by adding a layer of assurance to merchant and consumer onboarding solutions, helping to mitigate risk, reduce fraud, and increase trust in payments made across the globe.
“The digital economy thrives when people trust it and trust each other,” said Mastercard executive vice president, Identity Products, and Innovation Dennis Gamiello. “The ability to verify people are who they say they are instills confidence on both sides of digital interactions. Together with Trulioo, we are fueling the connections that make a vibrant digital economy possible.”
Canada-based Trulioo was founded in 2011 to help organizations navigate compliance by offering real-time verification of more than 13,000 ID documents and 700 million business entities across the globe, while checking against more than 6,000 watchlists. The company has raised $475 million.
Customer engagement company JRNI has integrated with bank technology innovator Backbase.
The integration will bring new appointment scheduling functionalities to users of Backbase’s Engagement Banking platform.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009.
JRNI, a leader in global customer engagement for financial services, has integrated with Backbase, adding new appointment scheduling functionalities to the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform.
“We believe that the banking experience is enriched by building trust through personal connections,” Backbase general manager of ecosystems Roland Boojien said. “This partnership aims to seamlessly provide convenient personal connections in banking and wealth management, effortlessly uniting customers and trusted advisors at their preferred time and location.”
Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform provides financial institutions (FIs) with a range of digital solutions for customer onboarding, servicing, financing origination, loyalty, and more – all from a single platform. Courtesy of the integration, financial institution customers on the platform will be able to book both virtual and in-person appointments seamlessly and securely. JRNI’s Self-Scheduling Appointment booking solution will give FIs the ability to offer an end-to-end embedded experience that begins with initial customer contact and continues through the customer’s entire journey with ongoing relationship management and support.
The Self-Scheduling Appointment booking solution will be available as an out-of-the-box add-on integrated within Backbase’s Digital Assist offering. Digital Assist provides a unified solution that helps customer-facing teams at FIs resolve customer service issues quicker, as well as upsell additional products and services easier.
“Backbase Digital Assist helps make interactions more efficient, effective, and of higher value,” JRNI CEO Phil Meer said. “JRNI’s engagement capabilities complement Backbase’s offering to drive trusted connections and relationships. Backbase shares our vision and its global platform prioritizes customer engagement as a critical pillar.”
Founded in 2008 and based in Boston, Massachusetts, JRNI offers a customer engagement platform that helps companies improve both customer acquisition and retention, as well as promote brands, drive hyper-personalization, and better engage target audiences. The company’s enterprise-grade event management platform handles scheduling, queuing, and analytics to provide customers with a personalized experience whether in-person or virtual.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009. Most recently demoing its technology at FinovateFall 2021 in New York, the company has won Best of Show on four separate occasions. With more than 150 customers and 2,000+ employees around the world, Backbase provides a platform that enables financial institutions to offer their customers the latest fintech innovations without having to abandon their existing core banking systems.
Backbase’s JRNI announcement comes just days after the firm announced that Malaysia’s Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (Bank Muamalat) had agreed to a long-term partnership designed to “revolutionize” the bank’s digital Islamic Banking offerings. Also participating in the partnership is fellow Finovate alum, Mambu.
Western Union is leveraging Plaid’s open banking infrastructure for money transfers in Europe.
The move is expected to benefit end users by offering a faster, more secure payments experience without negatively impacting the user experience.
Leveraging open banking payments will also create operational efficiencies for Western Union employees.
Plaidannounced this week that Western Union has selected to leverage its infrastructure to offer its customers in Europe seamless open banking payments. Western Union anticipates the move will offer its customers additional flexibility in how to send money to family and friends.
By leveraging open banking technology, funds transferred using Western Union will be faster and will have higher thresholds for safety and security without adding friction to the user experience.
“Consumers are demanding easier and simpler border-less payments without compromising on security, said Plaid Head of Europe Brian Dammeir. “Plaid is delighted to collaborate with Western Union to enable users to make larger payments, safer and faster.”
The new technology will also benefit Western Union employees by creating operational efficiencies. Plaid’s open banking technology streamlines Western Union’s internal operations and enhances its payment infrastructure by providing a common standard of funding across Europe.
“It was great working with Plaid to offer a new, easier way of doing money transfers with us,” said Western Union VP Omnichannel Marketing Bart Stence. “This collaboration shows how we at Western Union invest in innovation to provide our customers with the flexibility and trust they need.”
Jio Financial Services parent Reliance Group launched its own financial super app, JioFinance.
JioFinance serves as a single place where users can conduct digital payments, apply for loans, and purchase insurance.
Jio Financial partnered with Blackrock last year and is expected to enter the wealth management space in the future.
TechCrunch unveiled this morning that Jio Financial Services parent and multi-sector conglomerate Reliance Group launched its own financial super app, JioFinance.
Jio Financial’s new JioFinance app launched today in the Google Play store and aims to serve as a single place where users can conduct digital payments, apply for loans, and purchase insurance. The bank accounts are held with Reliance-owned Jio Payments Bank, which was granted a banking license by the Reserve Bank of India in 2015.
“Introducing JioFinance, for your fast and secure UPI payments, seamless bill payments, and timely reminders,” the app description reads. “Enjoy instant rewards and benefits on all UPI transactions. Instant account opening in a few minutes, with zero balance feature, interest rate as high as 3.5% and a digital passbook, with Jio Payments Bank. Take control of your finances with easy tracking and analysis of your spends in a few clicks. Pay bills, track expenses, and save money with the JioFinance app!”
Today’s launch comes after Jio Financial formed a partnership with Blackrock in 2023 to add wealth management offerings to its existing insurance and lending offerings. Also in 2023, Jio Financial announced it was leveraging alternative data to enhance its personalization efforts.
Unlike the U.S., India has a growing scene of true super apps players. Reliance’s competitors in the space include Tata Group and Paytm. Tata Group’s Tata Neu aims to integrate a range of services from e-commerce and finance to travel and health under one platform. And Paytm, which originally launched as a mobile wallet and payment app, has expanded into a super app by adding banking, financial services, and e-commerce functionalities.
The new offering for financial institutions enables users to monitor recurring payments and make real-time changes from within their banking app.
Atomic most recently demoed its technology earlier this month at FinovateSpring in San Francisco.
Payroll connectivity innovator Atomicunveiled its latest offering: PayLink Manage. The new solution is an actionable subscription management tool for financial institutions that enables users to monitor recurring payments and make real-time changes from within their banking app.
“By integrating PayLink Manage, banks can not only improve their service offerings and increase engagement, but also can solidify themselves as the primary banking relationship,” Atomic CEO and Co-Founder Jordan Wright said. “When banks help their account holders with innovative insights that are actionable, everybody wins.”
PayLink centralizes and automates oversight and control of recurring payments. Users can connect, view, and track a variety of payment types from subscriptions and bills to streaming services and mortgage payments. PayLink Manage also enables users to make real-time changes to their subscriptions directly within the banking app. Additionally, courtesy of Atomic’s direct connectivity, financial institutions can gain insights into usage data, itemized receipts, and other key subscription information. This facilitates deeper analysis, driving more personalized guidance that helps users save money.
“PayLink leverages Atomic’s proven technology, which has already facilitated millions of secure connections across financial platforms,” Atomic Chief Product Officer Andrea Martone said. “With this launch, we are extending our trusted, robust connectivity framework to subscription management, providing financial institutions with a tool to enhance customer engagement and improve retention by helping people take action to improve their financial outcomes.”
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Atomic made its most recent Finovate appearance earlier this month at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, the company demoed its subscription management technology, which leverages its access to payroll, HRIS systems, and merchants to support a range of financial services, including direct deposit switching, income and employment verification, and more. Founded in 2019, Atomic has raised more than $68 million in funding from investors, including ATX Venture Partners and Portage Ventures.
Small business banking platform Relay raised $32.2 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Relay will use today’s funds to further develop products in spend management, smart credit products, and its financial API marketplace.
Relay recently unveiled a commercial credit card offering and plans to launch a line of credit.
Small business banking and money management platform Relayraised $32.2 million this week. The Series B financing round, which was led by Bain Capital Ventures brings the company’s total funding to $51.6 million.
Today’s round also includes contributions from new investor Industry Ventures, as well as previous contributors BTV, Garage, and Tapestry. “Relay’s been on an incredible trajectory, even as others in the industry have had to pivot and find new footing,” said Bain Capital Ventures Partner Kevin Zhang. “We were eager to get behind Relay again as the company enters its next stage of growth and doubles down on the unique needs of the SMB market.”
Relay was founded in 2018 to help small businesses owners build healthy businesses by better understanding and managing their cashflow. Through its partnership with Thread Bank, the company offers business checking and savings accounts, accounts payable tools, receipt management, and– most recently– a credit card for select users. Relay also said that its launch of a line of credit offering is “slated to come.”
“68% of U.S. small business owners have cash flow problems. They worry about making payroll and mission-critical bills but lack the tools to truly address these existential threats,” said Relay Co-founder and CEO Yoseph West. “Relay gives them cash flow clarity and control—what SMBs need to sustainably fuel everyday operations—by pairing financial services with software and making banking work harder for them.”
Relay will use today’s funds to further develop products in spend management, smart credit products, and its financial API marketplace. The company believes these developments will help it achieve its goal of delivering AI-powered predictive cash flow analytics to SMBs.
Relay saw its revenues rise by 3x in 2022 and by almost 6x in 2023. While the company has not released user numbers, Relay revealed that business owners log into its platform 13 times per month, and of the clients that use Relay as their primary account, 40% log in daily.
